Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis traces the rise of environmental awareness in Britain and America over the course of the long nineteenth century through the period's art and literature. The Industrial Revolution, and advances in the sciences of geology, paleontology, meteorology, and ecology, dramatically changed humanity’s relationship to the planet. Writers and artists deeply engaged with these sciences, and began to express a novel perception of humankind's place in, and impact on, the natural world. The exhibition's title comes from a lecture by the writer and art critic John Ruskin in which he described a sky altered by industrial pollution. Works of visual and literary art by the Romantics, the Pre-Raphaelites, and members of the Arts and Crafts movement are displayed alongside key scientific texts and images, as well as works by early 20th-century preservationists John Muir and Mary Hunter Austin. Through nearly 200 items drawn from The Huntington’s collections and on loan from collections in the United States and Britain, “Storm Cloud” places our current climate crisis in its historical context, examining the profound changes that industrialization and a globalized economy have wrought on everyday life, as charted by scientists, artists, and writers for over 150 years. The questions and issues addressed in the historical material are brought to the present with the inclusion of works by five contemporary artists: Binh Dann, Rebeca Méndez, Jamilah Sabur, Leah Sobsey, and Will Wilson.

Storm Cloud Higher Education Curricular Resource: The Skies and The Cosmos

Storm Cloud Higher Education Curricular Resource: Picturing Science

Storm Cloud Higher Education Curricular Resource: Ecology & Environmental Justice